First I’d like to direct you to some catchy tunes that inspired me to do some further research on this genre of catchy music, known as dappan koothu/dappankoothu/dappankuthu.

There’s a lot of sweet percussion in dappankoothu and if you’re watching a music video of this kind, you might find yourself confused/horrified by why grownass men chose to pull up their lungis and reveal a little too much leg for your liking. Alas, the best part of this post (aside from the videos, of course) is the Wikipedia page on Dappan Koothu. I will paste an excerpt for your reading pleasure:

two males participating in a mating ritual to compete for the affections of the same girl?

Thigil Dappankoothu: Usually performed with head looking nowhere and then dropping the lungi down and the legs going sideways. Performed in the middle of a dance to make a fast getaway or when police/leader arrives.

Sorugu Dappankoothu: Usually performed crouched with the lungi on the mouth and hands going back and forth and jumping inside. Performed as an act of supremacy.

Okay, okay, so I can’t end any post on Tamil cinema without a tribute to Rajnikanth. (Though the real atrocity is that I’m not making a tribute to Kamal Haasan. I’ll reserve a post for that man for another day. He’s the bestest.) But back to the point. Here are two videos that I love for their ridiculousness, a sure sign that Rajnikanth was there. Kilimanjaro from the Robot movie (Endhiran in Tamil). And Raa Raa from one of my favorite Tamil movies ever, Chandramukhi (Bhool Bhulaiya in Hindi, but that was garbage, even though I was expecting to love Vidya Balan in that). And I promise I don’t always love the South Indian versions more than the Hindi versions! I loved Viraasat as much as Thevar Magan 🙂 Wow that was over a decade ago. Yikes. Viraasat was the first movie I watched in a theater in India. Good times. I diverge. My b. Okay, that’s really it. More posts soon. SO much to fill you guys in on.